Pros:

Cons:

If ever there was a sure-fire, can't-miss license ripe for a video game adaptation, it would have to be Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack. Boasting some of the most stylish animation seen since the heyday of Max Fleischer Studios, each episode of Samurai Jack finds the stranger-in-a-strange land swordsman searching for a way to get back to the past and defeat Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness who has conquered the future. Cinematic production values, anime-influenced action sequences, and a razor-sharp sense of humor have earned Samurai Jack the extensive fan following that it so richly deserves. How then is it possible that Adrenium Games' Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku could wind up as such a lifeless, monotonous, by-the-numbers game?

Even a casual gamer will complete Samurai Jack within eight hours. An Olympic-level gamer will do it in about half that. This is partly due to the ridiculously undemanding gameplay (more on that in a second), and partly due to Samurai Jack's depressing lack of content. The game is advertised as having 24 levels spanning four worlds, which is technically true. However, four of those levels are the hub levels for each world, and there's nothing to do in them except enter another level where something actually happens. Four more levels are just the boss fights for each world, so you're left with only 16 levels, each of which is about as filling as the sushi rolls that replenish Jack's health. An hour after playing this game, you'll be hungry for something a bit more substantial.

And unlike the cartoon, the video game version of Samurai Jack doesn't let a clever storyline or witty dialogue stand in the way of the action. The game starts off with the standard Samurai Jack plot -- while searching for a time portal, Jack comes across victims of Aku in need of help -- but it doesn't go anywhere from there. Instead, generic action-adventure levels are strung together with the thinnest narrative threads (save a character from Aku's minions, retrieve an item from Aku's minions, beat up Aku's minions for the hell of it, etc.). There's very little wit in the game, and almost no charm whatsoever. It's essentially an absolutely generic action-adventure game that makes poor use of a rich license.

Slice and dice.

The game's lack of personality is underscored by its lack of difficulty. Playing through Samurai Jack is about as challenging as watching an episode of Samurai Jack. Jack's weak and strong sword attacks can easily be strung together with the most basic button presses, but mashing on the main attack button works just as well. Most enemies are defeated in one of two ways: you either walk up to them and press a single attack button repeatedly, or you hold down the block button until they shoot at you, which causes the projectile to bounce straight back at the enemy and destroy it. Skill is not required. Thumbs are, but just barely. The only difficulty involved in completing Samurai Jack is working up the intestinal fortitude to endure an afternoon of tapping a single button to destroy wave after wave of brainless, harmless enemies. It's the anti-Ninja Gaiden!